Archive for the ‘Consumer affairs’ Category

Joules on the menu, please

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

The very worthy proposal of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) that menus should state energy values is undermined by its failure to use proper measurement units.  UKMA has responded by advocating joules rather than so-called “calories” (whatever they may be).

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Will the European Commission challenge US labelling rules?

Saturday, January 16th, 2010

A recent posting by NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology) has prompted this question: Are American labelling requirements now illegal under WTO rules?

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Tory spokesman supports centilitres of alcohol

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

In a commendable outbreak of common sense, Conservative health spokesman, Andrew Lansley has proposed that, in order to clarify the amount of alcohol being consumed, bottles and cans should be labelled with the quantity of pure alcohol in centilitres rather than in so called “units”.  But will this lead to a wider realisation that draught beer should also be measured in litres?

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Electric cars – an opportunity for SI, or a threat?

Friday, December 4th, 2009

The arrival of electric cars on our streets will draw attention to measures for comparing performance.

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Milk pricing – is there method in the supermarket muddle?

Monday, November 30th, 2009

The pricing of milk should be simple and clear, for milk is a staple item in every household. In reality, confusion often reigns.

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BIS sticks with pints of beer (but only on draught)

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

As expected the Business Department has refused to permit sales of draught beer and cider in convenient metric measures – but its reasoning is bizarre.

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The English language – not to be taken for granted

Monday, April 27th, 2009

Martin Vlietstra suggests a possible threat to our prosperity resulting from our resistance to change.

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A sticky problem with symbols

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

As a result of having to use two systems of measurement, many in the UK are familiar with neither. Philip Bladon, a regular contributor to MetricViews, draws our attention to yet another example.

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Free-for-all on packages sizes, but no help for consumers?

Saturday, January 31st, 2009

The Government has published its decisions on deregulating package sizes (as required by a 2007 EU Directive), including advice for business.  But so far no advice for consumers.

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Will 2009 bring metric-only labelling to the USA?

Thursday, January 1st, 2009

The coming year may see progress in this area. MetricViews offers a guide for the novice.

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